Schopenhauer, World as Will & Idea
Class Notes
- world is idea (these ideas drawn from combining HumeHume
David Hume
Wrote [[Hume, Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding]]
Wrote a History of England
Bkgrd Info
1711-1776
Scottish
studied law at 15, did not like it
self-taught in philosophy
published "Treatise of Human Understanding" at age 28
thought it would make him a rock star like Newton.
received little attention
ReidReid
Thomas Reid
[[Reid, Inquiry & Essays]]
Bkgrd info (copied fr. Kate)
important figure in the Scottish Enlightenment (18th century)
Presbyterian Minister
age 16, MA from University of Aberdeen
age 21, licensed preacher for Church of Scotland
age 27, entered Ministry
age 54, wrote Inquiry into the Human Mind
he was called to the University of Glasgow to replace Adam Smith as Professor of Moral Philosophy
Common sense = “The most important use of the term “common sense” in R... & KantKant
Kant
Wrote [[Kant, What is Enlightenment?]]
Man's primary problem isn't sin; it's that he doesn't have the freedom to reason & be enlightened (??)
Background
came from Prussia, wrote under Frederick the Great
Kant - a rationalist who wants to confine reason to the bounds of experience
reason is bound by the condition of possible experience; cannot reason about unexperienced things
so, we can't reason a/b God crating the world because we didn't experience it
... were the only philosophers who took him seriously
His Philosophy
What was in the air
the rationalism and dedu... and KantKant
Kant
Wrote [[Kant, What is Enlightenment?]]
Man's primary problem isn't sin; it's that he doesn't have the freedom to reason & be enlightened (??)
Background
came from Prussia, wrote under Frederick the Great
Kant - a rationalist who wants to confine reason to the bounds of experience
reason is bound by the condition of possible experience; cannot reason about unexperienced things
so, we can't reason a/b God crating the world because we didn't experience it
...)- mind takes in sensations, then actively perceives them
- only aware of the world as it directly affects us
- NewtonNewton
Newton
came up with a limited small number of principles & explained everything with it
he was all the rage at the time of Reid, Hume; everyone wanted to be the new Newton
this is a code block
would say that the world is only matter, but Schopenhauer is saying that your mind is putting the form on the matter, and that mental idea is - the subject is noumenal, it is the thing in itself
- I am a subject with a will, and I know a few things about myself
- so I know some things about the noumenal
- the world is the sum total of my imperical experiences
- will
- man's will is disguised by his knowledge
- but all of nature has a will for life
- will is always toward an end/goal (though everything is not going towards a singular goal)
- the will is what connects the individual to his body
- your self-conscious helps you realize that you are not just an object, but also a subject
- the will is the relationship b/t subject & object
- the will is what makes things happen
- so a rock has a will that makes it fall
- a plant has a will that makes it grow
- will is the primal force that drives all of history
- subject & object
- a subject is a thing with a will
Influences
- NietzcheNietzche
Nietzche
Notes
same religious critique of [[Kierkegaard]]: religion is superficial
so ditch religion
can only be understood with the background of Schopenhauer - also the foundation of FreudFreud
Freud
Notes
Background
- he was a bit more introspective than HegelHegel
Hegel
Wrote: [[Hegel, Intro to Philosophy of History|Intro to Philosophy of History]]
Notes
absolute idealist
key member of [[German Idealism]]
student of Fichte & relied on him in his work
the great intellect is not personal & is accessible to man b/c man's intellect is an extension of its intellect
view of history
teleological development - development in a direction ([[Darwin]] takes this and runs w/ it)
history recognizes internal contradictions and s..., saw the dark side of nature - he was a dark romanticRomanticism
Romanticism
Proponents
[[Schopenhauer]]
[[Hegel]]
Lecture Notes (Dewberry)
Introduction
Romanticism is very difficult to define
Not defined by its content, but a reaction to the Enlightenment
Primarily influenced by arts & literature, but in 19th c. had profound effect on science & philosophy
General Context
Romanticism is against egalitarian ethics (like [[utilitarianism]]) and against the mathematical-mechanical science of the [[Enlightenment]]. Nothin aroused gr...
Summary
Schopenhauer describes how we know things and analyzes the subject and the object. A person is a subject, and a subject can have knowledge of many objects, though not the other way around. Specifically, the objects do not have any essence, apart from the perception of the subject. He does not deny that the objects have matter, but rather that they do not have essence. In addition, a person's knowledge of outside objects is gathered through knowledge of the person's body as an object. The person is not aware of external objects. Rather, he is aware of sensations from his body. Thus, the body is termed "immediate object." After discussing the world as idea, he went on to discuss will and reason, and how they interact with intuitive experience. Every force in nature is a sort of will, and they all work against each other to display the forces that we see.